Lucy-Anne Richardson A2 Media

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Development Diary – Poster

I have already completed my photo shoot and now have my original images stored in a folder on the MAC computers. I firstly look through each of my images and choose which one I think is best appropriate for the poster. I chose an image in which the main actress is wearing a white (connoting innocence and purity) and is putting her hands up against her chest – highlighting the silver ring, which will be featured in the trailer - whilst looking straight on into the camera. It is a mid shot so that you can see her dress/costume, which will be similar to the one she is wearing within the trailer. When doing the photo shoot, I tried many different shots for the poster such as her screaming, her looking scared etc. but they all looked too over the top and amateur. I have picked this picture as it looks as if she has been possessed or is in a daze and because she is looking directly into the camera, which could make the audience feel uncomfortable. I also like it because it highlights the silver ring with an orange stone inside (which will be what starts the strange events within the trailer). I then placed this image onto a new page in Photoshop and made it as large as the page itself (A4) as I want the image to be almost as large as the poster. I want to delete the background so that I can insert my own background and effects. I do this by using the magnetic lasso tool and using the mouse to go around the image I want to keep. I then copied and pasted it onto another new page. I can now move it around by the arrow tool and change the sizing by clicking onto free transform. I am going to keep the size as it is at the moment until I have inserted the title etc. so I know how the sizing will look. I now want to edit this image so it looks professional and hides any imperfections that an actress in a film may have. I do this by clicking on image and levels, and then moving the arrows to change the levels such as making the image lighter or darker as well as other options involving colours. I made the image lighter so that it was more noticeable as well as highlighting the ring with the marquee tool, which allowed me to only manipulate the ring stone rather than the whole picture. The stone is already bright orange/red but it did not show well in the picture, by editing this it now stands out and could give the audience some indication that the ring has some part to play within the film. I also decided to keep the levels at this point because it made her mouth lighter than the rest of her face due to the tape I put over it (as a prop in the photo shoot). This could portray that she doesn’t have a voice or it has been taken away which is part of the storyline. However, I decided to go back and try some different ideas with the editing of the image as I thought it needed to be darker to be in keeping with the genre. I used a black and white effect by going onto image and levels which allowed me to try different colours etc.

Lucy-Anne Richardson A2 Media

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I realised the black and white looked much better and darker, essentially resulting in a more eerie poster. I then looked at her imperfections such as spots or small scars on her forehead. By clicking the spot healing brush tool, I can change the size of the brush and click on the imperfection and it blends in with her skin colour. During the photo shoot, I had already asked the actress to smudge her mascara so it looks like she is either upset or has been through a traumatic experience. However, I have used the smudge tool to create more mascara marks upon the ones she already has. I then focused on the background of the poster, which is currently white. I don’t want it to be over the top or colourful, as it does not suit my genre or storyline. From doing research and looking at other posters, I found that the majority of horror/supernatural film posters are dark and eerie. From looking at different film posters, the majority of posters – that are within this genre and portraying similar stories – use dark, black background with a simple image. I had previously thought that I should place another image of trees in a forest on top and change the opacity as an idea. I did this by going to my original images and finding an image of the forest and placed it on top of the image already on the page. I then moved the opacity up and down on the right hand side of the Photoshop page where the layers are. However, once I tried this, it did not look as effective as I thought it would. I then went back to my original idea with a plain black background. When I did the mock up design of the poster, I had a similar idea to place an image and change the opacity. I found an image online when I was researching different films and came across an image from Paranormal Activity when they use a video order and get lines on the screen (which makes it look as if it is an old film). I want to use this as it could mean that someone is watching you which links to my storyline. I used the line tool to create three lines going through her face and went to the layer selection on the right hand side of Photoshop, in order to change the setting such as drop shadow etc. as well as lowering the opacity which I believe created an effective image overall. It also made the red ring stand out even further, especially as the red will tie in with the red I am going to use for some of the text. Looking at the mock up design I had previously done, I saw the text that I used and decided I wanted to keep it almost exactly the same as it suited the poster. I found out what font I previously used which is Trajan Pro and inserted the title which I wanted to be white as it will stand out most against the black background and the tag line red as it connotes blood and danger.

Lucy-Anne Richardson A2 Media

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I then focused on the billing block, which is the credits that are typically at the bottom of a poster; they are also shown in the trailer. This includes the actors’ names, who it was directed by, written by etc. as well as production companies - which in this case will be my own production company Dreadshed. I wanted it to be a black colour as it is against the white costume of the stress. I feel they should not be the centre of attention, more like an extra, which is used for information and advertisement. The image and the title should be the main focus, however I wanted to stick to these traditional conventions so I included it. I had seen on The Possession poster that they had the release date underneath the billing block in a bright red. I thought this was very effective as the release date is also an important component within the poster. Also the red connotes danger and blood so I decided to incorporate this. At the beginning of the billing block, I have included ‘Lionsgate and Dreadshed present’ so I thought I could use their logos on each side of the release date to add a level of professionalism and also advertisement for the companies. I have created the Dreadshed logo myself on Photoshop, however instead of copying the Lionsgate logo, I decided just to write it in a text box, as it is not my image to use. Many film posters have their own website but I used ‘facebook.com/theswarmmovie’ which I have noticed some films use. I found this easy to remember so the audience would also. Since creating the magazine front cover, I have come up with some different ideas such as making her eyes slightly red to link in with her ring. It is the same

process as the ring, however you use the marquee tool to select her eye instead and click onto image and colour balance. I also really liked the smokey background effect, which I created on the magazine front cover. I did the exact same process by creating a new layer, filter, render and clouds. I selected a black colour pen so it would be the same as the background and erased a few sections. Once I lowered the opacity and made sure the layer was behind the original image of the actress, it created a smokey background. I moved the ‘based on a true story’ line down to sit on top of the billing block as it was previously sat in the middle of her forehead which did not look professional or believable.